After allegedly making that remark, former child actor Gary Coleman ("Different
Strokes") stands accused of repeatedly striking an autograph seeker. Coleman, a
30-year-old black man, now a security guard, claims he complied with a woman's
request for an autograph. But he refused a second request to personalize it. The woman
allegedly insulted him, and he attacked her.

For 1995, the FBI recorded 4,831 racial "hate" crimes, the majority committed against
blacks. This number represents a drop in the bucket of all crime but gets an inordinate
amount of attention.

Now authorities record over 1 million interracial crimes per year, 90 percent involving
white victims and mostly black perpetrators. How many are "hate crimes"? Apparently,
not many, given the meager 4,831 tally. Apparently, few black criminals mug whites out
of "hate." But the other way around, well, that's different.

Here's another problem. In compiling the hate-crime statistics, the FBI places into
categories the perpetrators' "bias motivation." This includes "anti-white," "anti-black"
and "anti-Hispanic." But the FBI defines "offender" as either white, black, native
American/native Alaskan, Asian/Pacific Islander, multiracial group and unknown.
Anything missing? Well, there's no category for a Hispanic "offender." Apparently, the
FBI decided that Hispanics can be hate-crime targets but not hate-crime perpetrators.

Huh?

Since a "hate crime" involves psychoanalyzing the victim's mind, what about
black-on-black crime? In "The Scar of Race," authors Paul M. Sniderman and Thomas
Piazza note that blacks hold critical views about members of their own race. The
authors asked both blacks and whites to respond to a series of statements: "Blacks are
aggressive or violent"; "blacks are boastful"; "blacks are complaining"; "blacks are lazy";
and "blacks are irresponsible." Blacks answered "yes" more often than whites! Does
this, Sen. Kennedy, transform an assault by a black against a black into a "hate crime"?

A retired black appellate judge attacked U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas
because Thomas no longer "thinks black." A California state senator verbally lashed
black anti-affirmative action proponent Ward Connorly because "He's married to a
white woman. He wants to be white. He wants a colorless society. He has no ethnic
pride. He doesn't want to be black ... " Suppose Messrs. Thomas and Connorly stuck up
a 7-11, and shot and wounded a black clerk. Hate crime? What if Rev. Jesse Jackson
shot and wounded the same clerk? Just a crime?

A black guy leaving his ATM gets smashed in the head by a brick-wielding Klansman
uttering, "Death to the nigger." As far as the head goes, the operative word is not
"nigger." It is "brick." Would the head hurt less had the Klansman said, "Death to the
African American?"

Clinton defender James Carville recently appeared on "Meet the Press." Carville flatly
stated, "I don't like Ken Starr." He said that "this is America" and he therefore didn't have
to like somebody. A refreshing burst of candor. But isn't this the administration that put
together a traveling race advisory board so that we can understand, get along with and
start loving each other? What if a Carville-inspired character stood up at one of the
everybody-hold-hands-and-love-each-other Town Hall meetings, and said, "Hey, this is
America. If I want to hate blacks, and Asians, and Hispanics, that's my right." Can you
say, "Call the bouncer"?

We focus attention on hate crimes. But in any given year, the country sees nearly 20,000
murders, 30,000 rapes and millions of other assorted acts of violence. Hate crimes? A
fraction of 1 percent of the total.

Meanwhile, in Los Angeles, the police recently secured an anti-gang injunction targeting
the Harpy's, a 450 person gang that terrorizes residents. Some beleaguered shop
owners pay as much as $150 a month for protection. People live in fear. Crimes go
unreported and unsolved because of witnesses' fear of retaliation. But, rest assured, the
feds intend to make those 4,831 "hate criminals" pay. So watch out, Gary Coleman.

Urban residents do not cower at night behind burglar bars fearing a David Duke
carrying a Molotov cocktail. The real danger remains the thug down the street. A punk's
a punk, whether motivated by hate or greed, whether the victim's the same or of a
different race. Does the victim care about the perpetrator's mind-set? Call 911. Whom
do you expect? A cop, or a
shrink?